Method of generating a patient-specific bone shell

Abstract

The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described and illustrated below to encompass methods and devices for designing patient specific prosthetic cutting jigs and, more specifically, to devices and methods for segmenting bone of the knee and the resulting cutting guides themselves. Moreover, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for manufacturing customized surgical devices, more specifically, the present disclosure relates to automated systems and methods of arthroplasty cutting guides, systems and methods for image segmentation in generating computer models of knee joint.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of generating a patient-specific bone shell representative of at least a portion of a patient's bone in its current state by a reconstruction system, the method comprising:
 imaging at least a portion of a patient's anatomy to create a plurality of 2D image slices of the patient's anatomy taken orthogonal to an axis extending through the patient's anatomy, where each of the plurality of 2D image slices includes a bone segment comprising an enclosed boundary corresponding to an exterior of the patient's bone; 
 recognizing the enclosed boundary of each bone segment on the 2D image slices by using a template 3D image bone shell that is not patient specific; and 
 constructing and outputting a 3D image bone shell of at least the portion of the patient's bone by associating the plurality of 2D image slices of the patient's bone based on the recognition of the enclosed boundary of each bone segment, where the 3D image bone shell depicts a current state of the patient's bone. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein imaging comprises operating at least one of magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method is performed to generate the patient's bone comprises at least one of a femur, a tibia, and a humerus. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising generating a 3D image surgical jig, by a software component, to mate with the 3D image bone shell, where the 3D image surgical jig includes topographical features customized to the exterior features of the 3D image bone shell. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 4 , further comprising outputting an instruction file for fabricating a surgical jig having tangible topographical features of the 3D image surgical jig. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein recognizing the enclosed boundary comprises recognizing an outline of cartilage appearing in at least one said 2D image slice, and further comprising constructing a 3D image cartilage shell representing at least a portion of a patient's cartilage using the plurality of 2D image slices of the patient's anatomy based on the recognition of the outline of cartilage.